farm/smallholding livestock

freezspirit

Keeping a couple of goats used to be popular

sirbrainy

Not for the goats :rotfl:

lostinrates

freezspirit wrote: »

Keeping a couple of goats used to be popular

I think part of the reason its less popular is the faff of defra and eartagging for the comparatively small reward.

if you are going down a livestock route for income rather than pure small hlding self-sufficientish behaviour is makes sense to pick more animals of the same type, or minimal types that can be managed in a cmplimentary manner to reduce faff.

Errata

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I will start....:D


Sheep.....has anyone got any advice for people who are thinking of owning sheep for the first time... when is the best time to buy them? how old? how much should you expect to buy a sheep/lamb for? pure bred or cross? how much is sheep food per sack? etc

Depends on what you want the sheep for. Fattening and chauffering down to the abbatoir - try and get hold of some orphan lambs at lambing.
Sheep to breed - you'll need to rent the services of a bloke sheep and pay someone to lamb them if you can't manage it or a vet if there are problems (££££££)
What do sheeps eat - nowt except grass if you're fattening lambs up for lamb chops in the late autumn, but they do like jam sandwiches and Mars bars.
Other costs - tail rings, knacker rings, meds, dosings, insurance, registration (? not sure on this one, it's a long time since I reared orphan lambs in the orchard of my old house).

HTH - happy sheeping.

twiglet98

Depends also what soil you're on, the quality of the grazing, as well as what you want the animals for. My neighbours have Soay sheep so they don't have to mow their 1 and 1/4 acre meadow. The grass is rough with lots of thistles and brambles, and we're on heavy clay but they're small, light sheep and don't make it too muddy. Soays are a primitive breed originating from the Hebrides. They don't need shearing as they rub their loose coat off in chunks on the fence and hedges, they don't need dipping, and they eat very little. They get a handful of ewe nuts twice a day and half a section of hay twice a day in winter, between about a dozen sheep. The oldest ones, and male lambs, go in the freezer every so often, but there isn't a lot of meat on them, so if the prime purpose is rearing them for meat you'd want a heavier breed. My personal favourites are Ryedales, though I have never had the opportunity to care for any of these. I buy a whole (butchered!) lamb two or three times a year from another friend who breeds Suffolk crosses and is rather more of a businessman, though his sentimental side meant he spent ££££s on a ewe who prolapsed and eventually had a caesarean..... and the two ewes who produced triplets had one each removed and he bottle reared them... factor in a lot of time if you decide to breed, and make friends with your vet...

ALIBOBSY

I have seen recently a farmer using sheep for milk, never seen this before but is it a way of getting more out of a flock?

Intially I would have thought birds are the best option chickens/geese/turkeys etc some for eggs some for meat. Again I remember seeing something about turkeys where they were throwing the turkey eggs away as the were only breeding for meat and couldn't sell the eggs. If I remember rightly the farmer said the eggs were big and vey simular in taste to chicken eggs, but they couldn't sell them.

Our dream is to buy a small holding and be self sufficient-perhaps with a small "farm gate" shop, so I suppose in that situation you are looking for different things in livestock than say a large commercial farmer.

Ali x

taxsaver

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

apart from chickens and ducks, was just wondering if anyone had other farm/smallholding animals etc

Just thought i would start a thread so maybe if people are thinking of having some sheep or pigs etc, and people who do have farm animals could chat and give advice etc...

I will start....:D


Sheep.....has anyone got any advice for people who are thinking of owning sheep for the first time... when is the best time to buy them? how old? how much should you expect to buy a sheep/lamb for? pure bred or cross? how much is sheep food per sack? etc

Excellent thread, good to have one like this on MSE so thank you OP.

I currently have chickens, both varieties for eggs and also for meat. I also have Aylsbury ducks for both eggs and meat as well as some Bronze Turkeys.

We also have some pygmy goats (but these have only ever been pets from when our kids were young). This year we have bought some Saddleback pigs (4 weaners) the intention is to take one of these for meat and keep three (a boar and two gilts) for breeding.

Tomorrow I will be taking delivery 4 lambs (Wiltshire Horns)... again with the intention of retaining a ram and two ewes and taking the fourth one for meat in a few weeks time.

The plan for next year is to add some bees and also some geese. We previously had geese but lost them to foxes one night.

I'll be glad to share my limited knowledge and experiences and hope to hear from others too.

sirbrainy

Not very pleasant fitting the knacker rings on the male lambs and seeing the [EMAIL="b@@lls"]b@@lls[/EMAIL] rot off through bad blood supply, gotta be said.

Glad it didn't happen to me.

Errata

sirbrainy wrote: »

Not very pleasant fitting the knacker rings on the male lambs and seeing the b@@lls rot off through bad blood supply, gotta be said.

Glad it didn't happen to me.

True, but the alternative is having a field full of randy fighting rams.

lostinrates

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

I have seen recently a farmer using sheep for milk, never seen this before but is it a way of getting more out of a flock?

producing milk for sale or making something else from, rather than home use might extend the use of the flock but also the costs. One of the reasons our farm was sold by the last owners was the cost of bringing an already functional dairy farm up to current commercial standard was crippling. I have no idea what the equivalent for sheep or goats would be. But H and S and tracebility is an ever increasing consideration.

But on a smallholding then why on earth not use sheep milk? Feta, roquefort, pecarino ....many of the world's best cheeses are from sheeps milk.